There’s little new to be come in the solo acoustic singer/songwriter genre right now, often overpopulated by front men of popular bands embracing the side-project lifestyle and offering a new take on a familiar voice, it’s a curious genre. It’s sometimes hard to associate some of the people out there right now with the roots of where the intimacy and feel of acoustic music originally came from. Eric Bachmann obviously isn’t the founder, that’s not what I’m getting at; it’s more a case that he’s taken some of the wonderful things acoustic music can be and crafted a very individual and enjoyable debut solo album from it.

When he’s not putting his name about in singer/songwriter circles, he’s normally associated with Seattle’s Crooked Fingers, with whom he’s made a name for himself as a gifted songwriter, ‘To the Races’ is the confirmation, if it were needed of that ability. It’s made all more remarkable to consider the collection of 10 songs were self-recorded in just over a week in hotel room in North Carolina. The songs are beautifully crafted and represent the stripped down nature that the recording process undoubtedly enjoyed, exploring tales of loneliness and the longing for human contact.

‘Man o War’ is the opening track, a beautiful 6 minute 24 second barrage of picked guitar and gravely vocals; possibly off-putting in length, it serves remarkably to draw you deep into the sound immediately, opening up a huge receptiveness to the rest of the songs on offer. Some lyrical gems are on offer here, it’s remarkable that after the conclusion of the song you can’t help but smile, an admirable quality that so many bands fail to ever create.

There is a massive amount of folky routes and heritage in this album; the brilliant thing about folk music is you’re hearing something new but it already sounds as though you’ve known it all your life. Bachmann captures this attribute superbly and just a few listens will have you recognising these tracks as if it were second nature. ‘Home’ and ‘Carrboro Woman’ explore such qualities in different doses and to different effect, the former being more of a downbeat introspective number, where the latter restores the smile. The melodies are brilliant and testament to what can be done with just a voice and guitar, though both these tracks sport additional instruments in the shape of a violin and harmonica respectively, they’d do well enough without the additional assistance.

‘Genevieve’ once again sounds like a song you’ve known your entire life, Bachmann’s almost crooning vocals are particularly poignant here; “what I cannot have, I do not need”, the ambient mood reflects loss and coping, which he portrays so well in the lyrics. ‘Genie Genie’ is a bit more upbeat again, once again: similar sounding to the previous tracks. By sixth track ‘Lonesome Warrior’ it becomes apparent that this is all there is; though this track takes on a different feel with double tracked vocals; it can’t quite compensate for the lack of diversity on show. The addition of lead guitar comes as a little surprising here, this is definitely the norm-defining track as far as the mood of the album goes.

The title track sport a cut-up guitar riff accompanied by an eerily sounding violin; it sounds a little like folk music, but not that born in America but Eastern Europe; it soon aspires to be that this is an instrumental track, just over two minutes long. Adding an odd feeling to the album; in a singer/songwriter whose lyrics are so refreshing and at times indescribably brilliant, and the title track contains none. The intro to ‘Liars and Thieves’ is slightly longer than the previous song’s entirety; and for a moment it appears the album will finish instrumentally, but Bachmann finally comes in with some awe-inspiring lyrics “lies on top of lies even in between the lines its lies they are feeding you.” The chorus chant of “lies, lies, lies.” confirms the theme to this song and is a refreshing change.

‘Little Bird’ is a beautiful masterpiece, vocals and guitar start off the song, but an accompanying piano soon adds to the mix, and before long the song just seems to be getting louder and louder to a huge climax, the vocals jump into double tracking in parts and it does feel as though a huge climax is forthcoming. No such thing happens and the track eventually expires, making way for closer ‘So Long Savannah’, using some interesting guitar sliding as another trick utilised. For a debut solo album using just a handful of instruments, Eric Bachmann has been highly successful; as mentioned previously, the samey feel which at first is blissful and comforting in easing you into listening, eventually turns into an annoyance and raises the question of how long it’s due to go on, in this the album’s appeal is also it’s let down and that’s a big disappointment. But at just over 38 minutes long, this CD is short enough to get away with such short falls and overall leaves a nice feeling, singer/songwriters aren’t always bland, Eric Bachmann has introduced a set of songs you think you know and can easily get lost in, for that reason this is a must have for anybody with taste.